Armada Youngling Series
by Inashi Silverfang
Summary: An explosion caused by one of Cyclonus' experiments turns both him and Starscream into sparklings! How will Demolisher and Megatron deal with this?
1. Chapter 1: Boom!

The Armada Youngling Series

Summary: An explosion caused by one of Cyclonus' experiments' turns both him and Starscream into sparklings! How will Demolisher and Megatron deal with this?

A/N: Alright, I've read a bunch of fanfictions where the Decepticons have sparkling/ youngling protection programming that is activated whenever a sparkling/ youngling is around. Well, I've never read an Armada fic that has that, so I just figured that I would write one!

Disclaimer: I don't own the protection programming idea, nor do I own TF Armada. Otherwise-Starscream would never have died!

Let's get this party started right!

Inashi Silverfang

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Chapter one: Boom!

'And to think, the day began so wonderfully.' Megatron thought bitterly as he held the whimpering red sparkling closer to his chest plates; trying to sooth it with the warmth of his spark. The little body just curled closer, clutching at his green and purple armor with tiny black hands.

Megatron glanced down at the little sparkling, taking in the small wings and the dark helm pressed into his chest. "Starscream." He murmured softly, catching the little ones' attention. The sparkling glanced up from where his face was buried in the commander's chest-huge, watery orange meeting gentle, blood red.

The tank-former just sighed before settling back to recline further into his throne, thinking back to how this whole mess began...

_The Mini-cons had been quiet lately, leaving the Decepticons with more free time than they knew what to do with. As such, they decided to use their time in the following manners-_

_With Demolisher, he was pursuing the extra time_ _to practice his aim. Various craters that marked the moon's surface were testament to his dedication._

_With Cyclonus, the time was spent in a fusion of napping or toying around with various chemicals: the more colorful and dangerous the better._

_With Starscream, he spent his downtime on swords' practice. The jet would stay on the training field for hours, often recharging there as well._

_And as for Megatron, the time was spent on both recharging on his throne, or plotting ways to get more Mini-cons with less work._

_In other words- it was the perfect time for disaster to strike._

_No one had any idea why Starscream had come into the base in the first place- after all, he usually just carried rations with him, so he had no reason to retrieve them. But enter the jet did, and in walking to the mess hall, he passed Cyclonus' quarters, little knowing of the oncoming chaos._

_A soft hissing sound was all the warning the seeker received before the explosion hit. The door was blown back against the far wall, and a thick, red mist enveloped the hallway._

_All Starscream had time to do was let out a surprised gasp before his world went black._

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End Chapter one!

A/N: If you want more, Read and Review! ^_^

Inashi Silverfang


	2. Chapter 2: Meet the Minicons!

Chapter two: Meet the Mini-cons!

A/N: Alright, I will make no excuses for the fact that my update is VERY late, other than the fact that...

1-I had a journalism deadline that I had to meet.

2-I have a one and a half year old little brother who has duel ear infections, the flu, and strep (sp?) throat.

3-I had four projects I had to do for fine arts for my school, and they were due at a certain time.

4-I have a project that I'm working on for a friend of mine on deviant art.

And 5- I have a total of 5-something weeks until I graduate, and I have a total of three courses I have to complete until I do.

So please, If I'm late for an update-Don't think It's because I'm being lazy. I've got a lot on my plate right now. But I digress...

I hope this chapter will make up for both the wait, and the length of the

first chapter.

Thanks to everyone for encouragement and the reviews and the subscriptions! You're all beautiful! ;)

Alright, enough of my dribble- Let's go!

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Chapter two: Meet the Mini-cons!

Demolisher stared. Here he was, just minding his own business and slowly meandering around the base when he comes to find the door to Cyclonus' lab blown clear across the hall, and a remainder of some kind of red vapor slowly fading away in the air. The tank-former sighed in resignation, before carefully making his way into their resident mad scientist's lab.

What he found wasn't promising. There were small bits of shrapnel imbedded in the wall where the door formerly was. The desk where the explosion probably originated from was blown clean in half- one side against the far wall, and the other against a spare table, forming a small alcove. The most worrying thing though, was not what was seen, but what was missing.

Where was Cyclonus?

Had someone already dragged him off to the Med-bay? If so, then who? The tank doubted it was Megatron. After all, his leader didn't even go to the Med-bay when his own frame was damaged. Maybe Starscream? After watching the jet look after the Mini-cons a few times, Demolisher had come to realize that the jet had a bit of a soft side. The question now was- if that softness for the Mini-cons carried over to his comrades.

Demolisher didn't know, and realized that this train of through wasn't getting him anywhere. With another sigh, the tank turned to leave- when a small sound caught his attention.

Was that...sobbing?

Demolisher froze, and listened hard for the direction of where the sound was coming from. A soft sniffle echoed from...the little alcove in the corner? The tank frowned- wondering just what was going on here. What did Cyclonus have in his lab that could make that kind of noise? Slowly, cautiously, the bulky decepticon approached the little hole- his weapons primed, just in case.

Hesitantly bending down so that he could see better, Demolisher was surprised to find a set of lime green lights staring back at him from the darkness. Funny, they were the exact same color as...oh no. Oh no, oh no, oh no. This was _so _not happening.

Cyclonus had spawned!

The tiny form wedged in between the desk fragment and the table let out a watery chirp, obviously curious about the big mech peeking onto his hidey-hole. Demolisher dimmed hid optics in a blink, and brightened then again- his mouth gaping open like one of those organic fish. A sudden bout of indecision played across his mind.

What should he do? Should he take the sparkling to Megatron? Wait to see where Cyclonus was and confront him about the situation when he was found? Should he find Starscream and ask him for his advice? The tank didn't know, but he did know that his first step was to get this little one out of here. Smiling softly, the tank flopped down on to his front, letting his protection programming take over for him.

First instinct: Make yourself as little dangerous looking as possible.

The tiny sparkling chirped again, wondering what this big mech was doing. Did he want to play? Cyclonus clapped his hands and bounced up and down on his little aft, apparently forgetting his tears. He wanted to play!

Demolisher bit back a small yelp of surprise as the now hyper sparkling lunged forward and attached itself to his face. The tank smiled a rare soft smile, slowly sitting up and gently removing the young one off of his face. Well, he really didn't have a choice; he needed to know what to do, and who better to ask form for advice than his leader?

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Megatron sighed in relief. He had just now finally managed to get Starscream to fall into recharge- the tiny jet still clinging to his armor. The Decepticon commander stared down at the tiny sparkling, watching him sleep with soft optics. The tyrant thought back to how he found the small form he cradled to his chest plates...

_He had heard the door impact with the wall from three halls away, and had come stalking in with the full intention to teach Cyclonus a lesson about playing around with dangerous chemicals. He arrived to find the hall enveloped in a thick red mist- not too surprising considering the circumstances. Megatron had growled and continued moving onward, toward the wreckage of the busted door way... When his foot hit something._

_Something small that yelped and moved away._

_The tank had jerked back in alarm- his protection programming activating at full force from the sound. He had shaken his head slightly to clear it from the stream of feed back, and bent down to pick up the unfortunate little one. His hands found it even through the thick, choking mist. The purple and green tank felt tiny hands patting his as he picked the sparkling up to eye level. He gasped._

_It...it was Starscream!_

_The little jet stared up at the massive tank former in front of him, his sunset orange optics watery from crying. He whimpered, and held up his arms, clenching and unclenching his hands in a clear "Hold me closer!" gesture. Megatron had obliged, sighing internally. _

_Well, Starscream or not- his programming was active and in full swing- demanding him to watch after and protect the little life that he held close._

_And thus, Megatron turned and walked off to his throne room-completely oblivious to the other sparkling near by._

The soft 'shick!' sound of the automatic doors opening jerked Megatron from his reverie-and Starscream from his uneasy recharge. The small red sparkling blinked drowsily a few times before his face took on a rather grumpy look. He didn't cry, just turned around in Megatron's lap to glare hazily at whoever was at the door.

Megatron turned to glare too, before his visage morphed into a look of shock. Even Starscream let out a curious chirp, before realizing he was supposed to be angry-and went right back to glaring.

Demolished seemed to be just as surprised as Megatron. Here he was, going to ask his leader for advice on how to deal with Cyclonus' little pit-spawn, only to find out that apparently, Starscream had one too!

The little look-a-like Cyclonus in his arms interrupted his train of thought as he started to chirp excitedly, and squirm in the tank's grip. Ohh, what was this place? It was big and huge and- was that another sparkling in that other big mech's lap? Yay! A play mate! The little copter began to squirm even harder.

Demolisher tightened his hold on the writhing sparkling carefully, trying not to injure to little frame. The little one, realizing that he wasn't going to get away, crossed his arms over his chest and pouted, his bottom lip poking out cutely. Starscream finally broke his grumpy facade and giggled at the other sparkling, causing Cyclonus to pout harder.

It was then that the truth of the situation crashed down upon Demolisher with all the finesse of a stick of dynamite blowing up in his face. He stared down at the pouting sparkling in his hands in sudden shock.

This wasn't Cyclonus' child- this was Cyclonus himself!

He then glanced up, mouth agape for the second time that day, to gaze at the sparkling sitting in Megatron's lap. All the pieces were starting to fall into place...

The red mist!

All of this, both Cyclonus and apparently Starscream, being turned into sparklings had to be a result of the accident from earlier! But...why was Starscream...

"Are you just going to stand there with your mouth gaping wide open? Or are you going to say something?" Megatron snapped, breaking demolisher out of his thoughts. The smaller tank-former closed his mouth before opening it again to say, "Sorry sir. The situation just took me by surprise is all. How...how did Starscream end up like this? I mean, Cyclonus I understand- it was his lab after all, but how did it affect Starscream?"

Megatron thought for a few moments before responding, "I found Starscream in front of the door way to Cyclonus' lab. He might of been walking by when the explosion hit. We'll have to check the security feeds later to see. But I do know this- no doubt that this whole mess is caused by the side effects of what ever chemicals Cyclonus was fragging about with. What we need to find out now is how to counter act it."

Demolisher nodded, but then looked confused. He asked, "But Megatron, how do we do that? I mean, it's not as if Cyclonus would've written down the chemicals he was using. How are we supposed to counteract then if we don't know what they are? And with the hunt for the Mini-cons going on, we're-"

The shrilling of an alarm interrupted him.

A new Mini-con had revealed itself.

Megatron had to put forth a conscious effort not to use every curse word in the book. Now- of all times! He glanced down at the little jet sparkling in his lap. Starscream had curled into him, startled by the loud alarm. Cyclonus wasn't faring any better, clutching at Demolisher and staring around with wide, uncertain optics.

For the first time in a long time, Megatron didn't know what to do.

His protection programming was going too strong for him just to leave the sparklings alone on base-but he very well couldn't take them with him to the battlefield either!

The sound of the automatic doors opening derailed his train of thought.

The Mini-cons came dashing in, ready to roll. That is, Until Swindle and Crumplezone (?) caught sight of their sparkling-fied partners. The two Mini-cons, who were the first two in the formation, abruptly halted, causing the others behind them to crash into each other. Megatron stared down at them.

One could practically see the light bulb go on above his head.

"The Mini-cons!" The commander exclaimed, Startling the little one in his lap enough to make him jump. Demolisher blinked at his leader in confusion. "Umm, My Lord? What about the Mini-cons?" The smaller tank asked hesitantly. The tyrant looked over at him and smirked, moving to set Starscream down on the floor.

The tiny jet whimpered and reached up for him- but was soon distracted by the tiny bot about half his size that was toward him. The sparkling pulled back slightly, not quite sure about the little red bot beeping at him frantically. Swindle tried to get closer to the little seeker, but Starscream was having none of it. He backed up into Megatron's leg and growled in what would of been a threating way if he was still an adult.

Problem: Starscream was no longer an adult.

It sounded more like a turbopuppy than a threat.

Swindle froze and beeped sadly, wondering why his Bulk didn't want him. Ransack (?) ran forward and patted his shoulder consolingly.

As where Starscream wasn't too thrilled with the Mini-cons, Cyclonus was absolutely enthralled with them. He wiggled in Demolisher's grip to be let down. Demolisher, seeing no reason why not, agreed.

Mistake number one.

With a squeal loud enough to match the alarms still going off, Cyclonus lunged after the Mini-cons closest to him- which happened to be Leader One and Blackout (?). With startled beeps, the two Mini-cons dashed to hide behind Megatron's leg, where Cyclonus came pelting after-crawling for all he was worth. Once he was within reaching distance, the little copter gripped a part of Megatron's leg armor to pull himself up with, and maybe get a grab at the little bots from above.

Mistake number two.

Seeing another sparkling touching what Starscream considered to be his care taker, he let out an angry shriek and lunged after the other, knocking them both to the ground when Cyclonus lost his grip on Megatron's leg armor. The two angry sparklings rolled around on the floor of the throne room, growling and spitting static at one another. (1)

Megatron hastily reached down to grab Starscream as Demolisher reached to get Cyclonus. The Mini-cons, fearing for their safety and seeing the sparklings distracted, made a dash to safety behind Megatron's throne.

The two tank-formers actually had to pry the two flier sparklings away from each other.

And the mini-con alarm was still going off...

It was time for Megatron to initiate his plan...

_To be continued..._

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A/N: Hehehe...Yeah, I know. Evil cliffhanger.

But look at the bright side! More to look forward to next chapter! J

1- Alright, for this- just imagine cats hissing at each other. Or the monkey hissing off of Toy Story 3. You know, where it hisses at Woody? God, I love that movie...

But anywho, I give a special thanks to Wannabe Starscream, and my beloved little sister, XxwithxoutaxwordxX for the encouragement they gave me. You guys rock!

OH! And I'm having some trouble on which Mini-con belongs to who. I know about Swindle and Leader one, but that's about it. If anyone can help, I would really appreciate it!

'Til next time!

Inashi Silverfang


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